To Let Down One's Hair
by pega-chan
Summary: Kagome's a lost princess who's trapped in a tower, Inuyasha's a hanyou who stumbles upon said tower. Why's her grandmother trying to kill her? And why's her hair so ridiculously long, anyway? Inuyasha intends to find out. Parody of Tangled
1. The Prologue

**Prologue**

It was the 24th day of September, and the second birthday of the young princess of the Northern kingdom of Arashi.

The nobles flocked to the grand palace, dressed in their finest kimonos, sporting dazzling smiles and stunning pieces of jewelry. Some came to give their congratulations to the King and Queen, some came to catch a glimpse of the soon-to-be ruler of Arashi, and some came to meet their old friends and enjoy the exquisite food and the latest court fashions.

The beautiful, elegant, and kind queen stood by her wooden, gold-adorned crib, observing her baby with a soft smile gracing her red lips. Her long black hair was tied back at her neck in her signature style, and her dark brown eyes glowed with the happiness of the moment. She donned a white and red kimono, with intricate patterns crafted by the best in the kingdom. Her obi was pink, white, and green, detailed sakura blossoms sewed onto the fabric.

Countless nobles came by to congratulate her and to fawn over her small daughter. At two, the little girl already had a good head of hair, with stormy grey eyes and light, unblemished skin. Her hands and feet were tiny, and her small hair wavy and dark, just like her mother's. Beside the radiant queen stood her husband, the king of the kingdom of Arashi, and the father to the sweet child who dozed off in front of them. He stood regally, head high and shoulders square, smiling handsomely with his black hair falling just short of his shoulders, and his warm brown eyes welcoming. The two stood as the perfect couple, and the new addition to the family finished the flawless portrait. It was no question why they were the rulers of the powerful and influential North kingdom.

And so it was to be expected they would have some enemies. Though most kept their harsh opinions to themselves, or only to their closest friends, there are always the ones with the evil plans in motion. The ones who would stop at nothing to remove power from one they believe to be unworthy. Even though the king kept the kingdom running well, and as many as he could with house and food, he could not help everyone. And there was one who could not forget, could not forgive how the king had ruined his life, torn apart his family and destroyed everything he'd grown up with.

And so what better time to strike then when the whole kingdom had their guards down, celebrating the birthday of the princess?

An old woman, disguised cleverly as a servant, hurried quickly down the darkly-lit hallways of the palace, her feet shuffling unevenly. She was nervous, snapping her neck constantly from here to there, and twisting her clammy fingers. She navigated her way down hallways quickly and efficiently, like she'd taken this same path many times before in her long life.

And so she knew exactly when the Queen and King would leave to talk to the more important guests and leave their daughter virtually unprotected. A quick release of purple miasma knocked out the three guards that had stayed behind to protect the baby and the guests who had also remained to watch the baby in her peaceful slumber. The old woman entered the room, looking strangely innocent standing amongst the bodies of the comatose guards and guests. She made her way across the room carefully. Then, reaching the princess, she smiled slowly to herself while bending down and covering the baby's mouth with a cloth, in case she decided to cry and alert the palace guards of the old woman's location, and lifting the child up into her arms. Looking around once more, she then hurried out of the room, to leave through a secret pathway she'd made solely for this purpose.

Yes, the plan was going swimmingly. The princess had been taken, and the king and queen would have no idea where to look once they found out. The woman allowed herself a raspy chuckle. Her boss would be proud, after all. 'And he doubted me,' she laughed internally. Looking down at the princess like she was a precious glass ornament, she secretly entered the woods that surrounded the palace. No one could stop her now. She had the princess, she had the rest of the plan in motion, and she would be allowed to live for the next thirteen years at least.

For now, she just had to hide the girl in the tower and wait till the searches and ruckus stopped, until everyone forgot there ever even was a princess of Arashi, daughter of Queen Kikyo and King Masao.

_So there you go, first chapter. This story is one of those rewrite the fairytale ones, and if you haven't noticed yet this one will be based on Rapunzel, mostly Tangled. But that doensn't mean it'll take the exact same plot line as the movie. In fact, it barely follows the plotline of the movie since I need Naraku and the Shikon in there and everything. Well, hope you liked - Chapter 1 will be up shortly, and don't worry you wont have to wait long for Inuyasha and Kagome to meet cause I can't stand when it takes forever for them to meet. Reviews are welcome - please review and make me insanely happy ^^_

_~Pega-chan_


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1: The Ambitious Princess and the Stone Tower she called Home.**

"And so they lived happily ever after. The girl took up the assassination of her lover's father, and her lover could do nothing but drown in the river that she'd left him at. Although she did break her promise to her mother about never leaving him… but…"

Urasue sighed and shifted uncomfortably in the small chair. "Isn't that a bit… brutal for a fairytale, Kagome?" she asked uneasily. Instead of the parent telling a story to the child for bed time, the girl preferred it when _she_ told the story and Urasue had to sit and listen. She was also getting slightly concerned as to how the stories always seemed to take a sinister path twenty minutes in.

Kagome smiled. "Well not really. I mean, you said that death in a story sometimes adds to the plot, right?"

"But you killed everyone except the murderer," Urasue pointed out, sighing again. She had not signed up for this when she'd started taking care of the child twelve years ago.

Now it was Kagome's turn to sigh. "I just wanted to change it up after yesterday's tale with all the happy ponies and rainbows. Not that I have a problem with ponies or anything. In fact I love them. Hey that reminds me. When are you gonna get me that bow you promised you'd buy for me?"

Urasue drew a breath cautiously. She'd accidentally told the girl a story about mikos and their archery once in order to get her to shut up (she was a curious child), and now she could only talk about bows and arrows and mikos. It was a danger for many reasons that Urasue did not want to remind herself of. For one, her mother was a miko, and talk of the mystical women might trigger her memory, which was something Urasue did not need to add to her pile of problems to deal with. For another, she did not want the girl knowing any way to protect herself, in case she ever decided to use her strength against her. Even though Urasue had made sure that Kagome believed she was her grandmother, and that her mother had died long ago, one could never be too cautious. So she answered the way she always did. Denial.

"I don't recall ever making that promise, Kagome. And you don't need to learn to protect yourself. Nothing could ever get through these walls and into the tower, remember?"

Kagome dejectedly looked away. "But that's the thing, oba-san. I don't really think staying in the tower is too much fun. Why can't I go out? Touch the green things."

"The trees," Urasue corrected subconsciously, then scolded herself for teaching the fourteen-year old more than she needed to know. "And you don't need to leave the tower! You have everything you need in here. Paper, paint, books, pans, and quills. If you want anything else, I'll get it for you, as long as it's not a bow. Remember, Kagome. The outside world is dangerous. And for a little girl like you who doesn't know how to protect herself, even more so. You could get killed, eaten, tortured, or, heaven forbid, kidnapped!"

Sometimes the irony in what Urasue said managed to get even a small laugh out of the old woman.

"But if I knew how to use a bow, I wouldn't be helpless anymore!" Kagome insisted. Urasue could see where this conversation was headed, and she was too old for more arguments with the bold teen, so she slowly lifted herself out of the chair. "That is enough, Kagome. We will speak no more of this. You are in this tower _for your own good._ Do not forget that. Now sleep."

She headed out the door, blowing out the candle on the dresser on her way. She could feel Kagome watching her hopelessly as she closed the door and headed down to her own room, which was all the way downstairs near the only exit in the entire building. The doorway out was hidden cleverly, disguised with the rest of the mossy stone walls of the old tower. Urasue slept next to it to make sure Kagome never found it and escaped. The window she had in her room was enough of a liability as it was, though Urasue knew the girl would never escape through the small opening in her room anyway. It was too high up, and she had no way down.

Sighing to herself for the umpteenth time that evening, she lay down in her mattress and closed her eyes.

Kagome sat alone on her bed after Urasue had left, silencing all her hopes and dreams in only a few sentences. She sighed and played with her long hair. Every night she had to braid it and then fold it on itself to keep it from covering the floor of her entire room. Her hair was ridiculously long. Sometimes she wanted to cut it, just snap the whole thing off, but Urasue didn't allow her. So she had to deal with washing it daily and combing it at least twenty times per day. It wasn't so bad though. It was a pretty shade of black that reminded her of something familiar and warm and kind, yet she could not for the life of her exactly figure out what it was.

She lifted herself off the bed and walked towards her window, knowing the path instinctively for it was a habit of hers to stare out her only window. Reaching her destination, she leaned her elbows against the sill and stared longingly out to the woods, the forest. The trees and grass were dipped in a dark tone due to the nighttime, and the lack of light left the landscape looking eerie, yet stunningly beautiful. It made Kagome want to go find her pencils and paper to sketch it out and then paint it. Often left with nothing to do, the girl liked to draw, read, or paint on the walls of the tower, creating colorful and bright murals to liven up the otherwise grey and stony walls.

Lost in her daydream, she did not notice the dark silhouette of a figure race through the trees at an inhuman rate. She did not notice when the figure stopped and eyed the tower questioningly. Then, considering his options, he launched himself off the ground and grabbed hold of one of vines growing on the ancient building. Then he used the momentum to launch himself upward again, until he finally reached a slit in the stone, a small window. Looking in quickly to make sure he was still alone, he propelled himself forward and landed smoothly on the stone floor with barely a sound.

He noticed the long, winding staircase, the only path he could take. Shrugging mostly to himself, he began climbing upwards, always on alert in case he ran into someone.

Reaching the top of the staircase, he noticed now there was only one path to go through. A single wooden door stood innocently between him and the next room. He was about to turn it and find out if the strange tower he'd come across would do as shelter for the night, in fact he would have, if the door hadn't swung open before he could even touch the handle.

And in front of him stood a teenage girl with long black hair tied in a braid that reached her heels and eyes such a bright grey that he could see them even in the cold dark. She looked honestly surprised to see him. In fact, too surprised to see him – like she'd never seen another person in her whole life.

He realized he probably looked intensely dangerous covered by the darkness, with his dark brown eyes, waist length black hair, and the menacing position he'd had to adopt in order to keep people from trying to kill him too often. So naturally the girl opened her mouth and drew in a deep breath, obviously preparing for the scream of her life. Fortunately though, his quick reflexes made his hand shoot up and cup her open mouth, stifling her scream and ruining any chance he had with making a good first impression.


	3. Chapter 2

_Hokay so I just realized i never put a disclaimer ever but better late than never right?_

_Disclaimer: None of the characters in this story or basic setting belong to me. All rights to InuYasha go to Rumiko Takahashi and Sunrise Inc. All rights to Tangled go to the Walt Disney Company. All rights to Rapunzel go to the Grimm brothers i suppose but im pretty sure they died like three hundred years ago so theres no rights to rapunzel anymore although i'm not an expert on royalties or anything_

_Well, on with the story, ne?_

**Chapter 2: The Chance Meeting between Her and…**

Kagome followed the sway of the wind in the grass with her eyes, practically dozing off where she stood. Realizing where she was, she shook her head to clear her mind. She wasn't actually tired. In fact, she swallowed and felt a sting in her parched throat, she was only thirsty.

She weighed her options. On one hand, she could stay here and try not to die of dehydration before the break of day, and on the other she could risk getting caught by oba-san and head downstairs to the kitchen where her grandmother kept the water and biscuits. Feeling adventurous, she shrugged and pushed herself off the window sill. Turning smoothly from the night sky and the bright stars, Kagome headed toward the door, grabbing the handle and opening the door as quietly as she could.

What she definitely was not expecting was for there to be someone already standing in front of her once she did.

Kagome's first thought was quite simply 'Holy shit.' Her eyes widened and she gripped the handle of her door tightly, turning her knuckles ash white. 'There's a person in my room. There's a person in my room! THERE'S A PERSON IN MY ROOM! What should I do? Oh kami what should I do?!'

She took a good look at the creature in front of her. He had long silky black hair that reached his waist, dark brown eyes, and tanned skin. He looked human enough. In fact, though she hadn't seen many people in her lifetime (a grand total of herself and her oba-san), he looked handsome. Yea, he was handsome. Kagome gulped.

But then her common sense returned to her and any passing fancy she might've had for the stranger was blown away with the wind. 'There's a person in my room! Doesn't oba-san always say that people are bad, they'll kill me, hurt me, _kidnap me!_ Shit!'

All this happened in a matter of about two seconds, and that was enough time for fear to kick in and instinct to take over. She opened her mouth and drew in a deep breath, prepared to scream her lungs out.

When suddenly the mysterious stranger stuck out his hand and stifled her scream with his palm.

Kagome was taken aback, frankly, at the bold boy holding a hand to her mouth. She quickly closed it when she realized the immense awkward of the situation. He seemed to have realized that too, but he didn't put his hand down. Instead, he scowled at her like this was all her fault, and then ushered her into her room like he owned the place.

Closing the door behind him, he led her to her bed and made her sit down. By this point, half of her was even more afraid of the stranger – he could easily murder her right now and she wouldn't even be able to scream – and the other half was actually way more curious than anything. Who was this boy? Why was he here? How did he find her tower? And… 'If _he_ knows where it is, do other people know where it is, too?' she questioned herself. 'Other… bad people? Could he just be the first of many?'

He seemed oblivious to her worrying thoughts, and instead scoped around like he expected someone to jump out and attack him. Then he turned back to her and said something for the first time, marking the first words she ever remembered hearing that weren't Urasue's or her own.

"Who the hell are you?"

Her eyes shined at hearing someone else's voice for the first time in her fourteen years of life. But then she realized what he'd said. She mentally sighed at the rude remark, but opened her mouth to respond anyway. Until they both realized he still had his hand covering her mouth.

He casually removed his hand like it was the most normal thing for people to do – and for all Kagome knew, it was – and waited for her to respond.

"Why would I tell you that? Actually I think I should be asking, who the hell are _you_?"

Taken back by her snappy attitude, he scowled again. "Keh! It doesn't matter. I'll be gone by morning, so just shut up and deal with it for the rest of the night. Go to sleep or something."

She sighed over-dramatically and brought her knees up to her chin, wrapping her arms around her legs and resting her head on her knees. "Well since you're going to stay you might as well talk. What's your name?"

He frowned, obviously not in the mood for friendly chat. "Listen, girl, you don't need to know about me, and I don't need to know about you, got it? So, like I said, you can just shut up for the next," he looked out the window to check the position of the moon, until remembering there was no moon for the night. "For the next couple hours," he finished.

She frowned deeply, coming close to even his scowl. "Um, no. I'm letting you stay in _my_ room in _my _tower, without alerting my grandmother who's downstairs, and who would freak out and try to kill you if she saw you too, with virtually no payment. You could at least deal with some small chat, ne?" She wondered for a second why she wasn't more scared of the boy sitting in front of her, with his hands tucked into his haori sleeves, scowling and raising his head as if to portray being the one with more power in the situation. He did look like he could kill someone. But something about him made her feel normal, at ease. And she wasn't one to question her gut, along with the fact he hadn't attacked her yet. And on top of it all, she was too curious to pass up an opportunity of talking to the first person beside her grandmother ever. She loved her grandmother, really, but she had to admit that the poor woman was quite dimwitted. But this boy in front of her – he was different, he was arrogant and new and exciting. She smiled despite herself. This couldn't be the world her grandmother wanted to keep her from.

"Wench, I don't do small talk." Hearing his term for her, all positive thoughts for the boy left her head almost immediately. She sighed. So much for "new and strange and exciting".

"Fine, I'll start if you're so stubborn. My name is Ka-" she stopped herself, realizing the potential danger she could be getting herself into. Instead, she continued with, "You're not going to kill me, are you?"

He seemed genuinely surprised at the question. "If I'd wanted to kill you I woulda done it already."

She grinned faintly at the comment. "Good then. And don't tell anyone, ever, okay?"

He rolled his eyes, but the way he was leaning forward betrayed the fact that he was faintly interested in what she was going to say. "Whatever, wench."

"Alright. My name is Kagome Higurashi. I've lived in this tower my whole life, and my grandmother takes care of me. But she's never let me go outside, and there's no door so I can't leave." She paused, realizing how much she sounded like a spoiled teen. "I mean, it's not like I don't like oba-san! No, not at all. She's very kind to me. She keeps me from the dangers of the world, she says. And I believe her, really." She finished quickly, but then realized the lie in her words. So she added, in a small voice, "Well, I did."

The boy had stayed silent through her monologue, watching the wall but still listening to what she was saying. So when he turned and acknowledged her directly, she almost jumped. "So you're grateful to her? You're grateful that she keeps you locked in here?" His voice was monotone, but she could feel the emotion in his words. Although, what emotion, she didn't know.

"Yes, I guess. Yes. I am. Grateful, I mean."

He sighed, like she'd let him down somehow. "Well I guess she has a point. The world is dangerous and terrifying at times, and if you don't know how to handle yourself you could get killed, or worse." He stopped and looked away, as if the talk physically hurt him. Kagome felt a strange pang of pity for the boy. "But not for someone like you. The world isn't bad for someone like you."

The fourteen year old heard the hidden message in the words. Two question popped up in her head. "Why wouldn't it be dangerous for me?" she grimaced. "And if it isn't for me," she looked at the boy from the corner of her eye. "Why is it for you?"

He shrugged off-handedly. "It isn't for you because you're human, wench. You could go to a human village. Sure, there's always bad people, but you'd be surrounded by others like you. Just find someone to protect you and you're good."

Once the shock of hearing there was such a thing as a 'village' with people just like her that would protect her faded, she realized his clever evasion of her second question. "And why is it for you?" she asked cautiously. Maybe he _was _a murderer and so everyone was trying to hunt him down and execute him.

She hadn't expected his harsh bark of a laugh in response, mostly because she hadn't realized she'd spoke that aloud. She cursed her loose tongue.

"That ain't far from the truth, girl," he answered. She noticed the strain in his voice and his tense shoulders.

Deciding she didn't want to talk about something that bothered him like this, she changed the subject. "Well, tell me about the human villages."

He looked at her cautiously, but then sighed as if admitting there was no way to escape her constant questions and comments. And so, the rest of the evening was spent with Kagome trying to get all the information she could out of him, and the mysterious boy answering in as little words as possible. Though, by four in the morning, Kagome could feel her mind shutting off and her eyes refused to cooperate with her and stay open. The boy noticed, too.

"Listen, go to sleep. You're tired."

"But I need to," she couldn't help the huge yawn that escaped her mid-sentence. "I need to hear more about why the sky is blue."

"Keh! I don't even know. Now go to sleep!"

"But you might leave!" she yelled out before she could even think about it.

He looked surprised by the question, and if it weren't so dark, Kagome would've seen the light blush that appeared over the bridge of his nose. "Keh, don't worry about it. Just go to sleep."

She lay down and threw the covers over herself as she protested. "But promise you'll be here when I wake up. Promise I'll see you again, ne?"

He scoffed. "Sure, whatever. Now sleep."

She smiled before drifting off to sleep, her last sight his midnight black hair and dark brown eyes.

_Doesn't this chapter just remind you of that song from Tarzan called Strangers Like Me with the chorus that goes "I wanna know! Can you show me? I wanna know about these strangers like me - tell me more! Can you show me? Something's familiar 'bout these strangers-" Okay that's enough of that cuz i could go on forever. Hope you enjoyed, please review and make my quotidian day amazing_

_Also the reason I re-uploaded the last chapter is because I accidentally wrote chapter 2 instead of 1 for it gomen ne_


	4. Chapter 3

_Omigosh thank you so much for the reviews and I'm so happy people actually like it ^.^_

_I'd like to thank MisakiBlossomslove, Dida, princessbinas, 4fireking, RubyRose101, fireandcrystal101, dragneel49, Kosmos615, and yes even you Guest for reviewing :D_

_Disclaimer: None of the characters or basic plotline/setting belong to me, Inuyasha goes to Takahasi and Tangled to Disney - may they both continue making amazing things for me to enjoy_

**_The Princess trapped with her Delusional childh_****ood Dream.**

Kagome awoke with a start, a feeling of dread she couldn't manage to shake off settled deep in her stomach.

She shook her head as if to clear the thoughts away. She shouldn't be stressing, it was her eighteenth birthday. Today Urasue would give her the special present she'd been promising Kagome for the last three months. And today she would get to eat that delicious sugary thing that Urasue always brought to her on her birthday.

Today was going to be perfect. So why did she feel like her smartest course of action was to turn and run?

She shook herself again, and reached for the hairbrush sitting on her dresser. She smoothly pulled her hair out of the braid and let it flow loosely around her shoulders, the soft rays of the early morning sun lighting up her black hair, giving it an almost orange hue. She pulled the brush through her hair repetitively and without thought. Instead, her mind wandered to a dream, one she hadn't thought about in almost two months.

She still remembered how he had looked in the doorway the first time she'd seen him, his black hair framing his sculpted face and his forelocks hanging over his shoulders. His eyes had looked so cold and distant at first. But then he'd spoken, and she'd answered, and she'd had an actual conversation with someone who wasn't her grandmother. And then… then he'd promised her he'd be there in the morning.

But she'd woken up, and realized it had all been a dream, and she laughed bitterly. No one would ever find her in the godforsaken tower. Still, she couldn't help but wonder at how real it had seemed, and how much he'd known and told her. Her mind couldn't have come up with all that on its own, right?

So she'd stood eagerly every night at her window, watching the trees with the hope of catching a glimpse of red and black.

She'd done so for at least six months after the dream. It was silly, she knew it was silly. It had been a dream and nothing more. But her mind refused to let her sleep at night if she hadn't stood by that window and watched the moon's phases for at least half an hour, sometimes more. And every new moon, she'd feel something in the pit of her stomach and it was moments like those when she could almost swear he had been real, that she'd really met another person.

But then dawn would break and she would shake it off and scold herself for being so childish, and push the brush through her black locks like every morning and replay the same memory of him she'd etched into her mind in her head till her grandmother came knocking on her door, telling her to do chores.

But today was her eighteenth birthday, and maybe something would finally change.

Like always, Urasue knocked on her wooden door, and Kagome answered with a soft "come in." The old woman somehow looked even more stretched today, her wrinkles weighing down her sunken eyes, and her clammy fingers intertwining nervously.

"Good morning, child. How do you feel on your eighteenth birthday?"

Kagome flashed her a smile. "Great," she lied. The feeling in her gut had not gone away.

"Good, good. That's good. I imagine you want to eat your birthday cake, and then we'll see about opening that present."

Kagome nodded and followed her grandmother out the door, and down the stone steps to the small room they called the kitchen. Atop the wooden table was a piece of cake, and next to it the regular green tea they had for breakfast. Kagome smiled and walked toward the table, lifting her chopsticks and eating the sugary treat.

"I bought that from the Western traders, you know. Be grateful."

"Thank you, oba-san," Kagome said through mouthfuls of the desert, after taking a long gulp of the hot tea.

Urasue stayed quiet and watched her eat, looking distinctly anxious and a bit uncomfortable. Kagome thought nothing of it, for one the feeling of doom had not left, and the cake was too good to focus on anything else but the food and her intuition.

Once she'd finished, Urasue began. "Kagome," she walked over to the table and avoided the girl's eyes. "Kagome, girl. It is your eighteenth birthday. And that means, Kagome… well it means many things." The old woman sat down across from her in the wooden chair. "For one, you are now an adult. You can make your own choices in life."

Kagome's heart skipped a beat, long gone hope rekindling in her. Could she be saying what she thought she was saying? 'Is she going to let me out of the tower?' She didn't dare voice her thoughts aloud, afraid any interruption might change the elder woman's mind.

"And so I am going to give you a choice, Kagome. I hope you make the right decision, because it could cost you… it could cost you a lot."

Not making sense of her most recent words, Kagome watched in muddled confusion as the old woman stood up again, seeming to not be able to stay in one spot for too long. "I have kept things from you, Kagome. Things about the outside world, yes. But not just that. Things about yourself. And things about me. But I suppose what I'm trying to say is that I need to ask you a favor, Kagome."

The girl in question was now on edge, sitting with her back stiff and her eyes alert. This was not what she had expected. It sounded almost like Urasue was… she didn't know. She couldn't understand what the woman was trying to tell her. She was keeping things from her? Well of course. She'd always said so, that she kept the dangers from Kagome. But she was hiding things about herself? About the old woman herself? Kagome furrowed her eyebrows and watched the older woman make her way across the room, looking like she was struggling with words. Not for the first time, Kagome wished she knew some way to defend herself. Something was off with Urasue, something was amiss.

"Kagome, you have a lot of power, power you were born with. And I have raised you in a manner that has cultivated that power, strengthened it, prepared it for your eighteenth… for now. Kagome, do you trust me?"

Kagome nodded in silence, even though her gut was screaming at her to not trust the woman she'd known her whole life. What was wrong with her today? How could she not trust her own grandmother? Ashamed of herself for her distrust of her own grandmother, she nodded again, with more vigor.

"Well then, I need you to use that power, and help me."

Kagome froze.

"I need to cultivate your power, Kagome. It's been sixteen years, I deserve it. I DESERVE IT, GODDAMMIT!"

The old woman's sudden outburst caught Kagome off guard, and she jumped out of her chair and looked about ready to flee. Urasue realized her mistake, and tried to calm her racing heart. "No, do not fear, child. I will simply take… take your power out of you, and bring it to the surface, and then you'll be able to use it! I promise! And you will stay with me the whole time. You trust me, right? Of course – of course you do, you said so. So just come here… come here, girl."

Urasue advanced on the young woman, her hand resting ominously inside her sleeve, as if she had something in there she was prepared to pull out. Kagome felt fear creep in, but she pushed it away to look for the smartest exit in case she had to escape. 'But this tower… I've lived in it for eighteen years and I still don't know where the exit is!'

While she reminisced and recalled, Urasue walked up to her cautiously, her hand still in her sleeve, and before Kagome could think to run, or scream, or fight, a gleaming silver dagger was pulled out, and she found herself at the endpoint of the sharpened knife.

Swallowing her scream, Kagome looked up into the eyes of the woman she had thought she'd known her whole life. Her face was almost unrecognizable now, the eyes glinting dangerously, and her chapped grey lips curved upwards in a maniacal smile, the smile of someone who'd waited too long to claim her long overdue reward. And now she was close… so close.

Urasue took another step forward, pressing the tip of her dagger lightly against the flesh of Kagome's neck. "You will work for me, Kagome. After everything I've done for you? After everything I've suffered in these sixteen years? I won't let you go now."

Kagome paused. Sixteen years? Wasn't it eighteen? Urasue had said she'd raised Kagome from birth, but today was her eighteenth birthday. Kagome inwardly shrugged and blamed it on old age and bordering-on-psychopathic sanity.

Instead of stabbing the young woman through the neck, Urasue dropped her dagger down to her arm and gave her forearm a deep cut. Kagome cried out in pain and clutched her injured arm closer to her body. Urasue chuckled. "I'll just keep cutting until you agree, Kagome."

Wincing from the pain, she tried to answer. "Agree to what? I don't even know what you're trying to get to!" She cried out, hoping it would be enough to knock some sense into her grandmother.

"The jewel, baka! Give me the jewel!"

Kagome's right hip throbbed unexpectedly. The jewel? What jewel? She was about to ask the old woman the same thing when she felt a stinging pain in her lower torso. She looked down to see Urasue cutting a slit in her stomach. The blood that escaped and flowed down her white shirt made her face turn a pale white and her eyes to widen in fear and pain. Letting out a small whimper, she looked around at the nearest door.

Urasue seemed to not notice anything, but was staring at the cut on her stomach like it was precious to her. "So long… I've waited so long…" She whispered more to herself, then advanced on Kagome, raising the dagger over her head in the typical axe-murderer pose, which then descended upon Kagome. "He's just going to have to deal with not having you alive with it!"

Suddenly, Kagome felt something, a stirring in her fingertips, and her reflexes brought her hands up to shield her face. But as she did, she felt the stirring intensify and grow, until it released and both women were engulfed in a bright, pink light. Urasue was thrown across the entire room, and she now lay slumped over near the opposite. Kagome remained otherwise unharmed.

Whimpering again, Kagome had to resists the urge to run and help the old woman. She turned and ran instinctively to her room. She wasn't sure what she was planning to do. There was no escape from the top floor, and once Urasue woke up she would just come up and kill her there instead of in the kitchen.

'And the jewel, what was the jewel she was talking about?' she asked herself as she wobbled up the stairs, the intense burning pain from her stomach and forearm forgotten in the midst of the adrenaline and panic she was experiencing.

Reaching the familiar old wooden door that led to her room, she looked back down the stairs to see if Urasue had followed her. She could not see her, but she could hear low curses and whimpers from the old woman down in the kitchen. She would no doubt come up to look for Kagome soon. Kagome gulped and turned back to open the door and enter her room.

She locked the bolt on her door and rushed toward her bed, unsure of where to go from here. On the way, though, she was walking to fast and too unbalanced, and her long unbraided hair got in her way and the girl tripped, falling with a soft thud on the hard ground. Wincing now from the ache in her leg muscles, she pushed herself up from the floor, only to cry out in pain as the cut in her arm stung from the motion.

She looked around her room, desperate for something, anything that would give her a clue as to how she could get out of the room. She could hear Urasue climbing the steps noisily but slowly due to her old age and newfound injury. If she'd had time, she would've wondered about the bright light that seemed to have come out of her in the kitchen, but she was currently too preoccupied with survival.

Her eyes landed on the window, and then descended down to her hair, and she threw herself toward the opening in the wall as fast as she could. Looking outside, she saw it was indeed too big a jump, but… 'maybe not too big if I use my hair as leverage,' she mused. She looked up quickly and caught sight of a small hook over her window. Grinning in victory, she threw the end of her hair up and tangled it with the hook. She let her hair down, tugged on it twice to make sure it was stable, and then, without a second thought, launched herself out the window.

_So I dunno if anyone's been keeping track but just to clear it up Kagome was kidnapped when she was two, then she meets human Inuyasha when she's 14, and now she's 18, in keeping with Tangled. So it's been four years since she last saw the guy.. beginning may've been confusing due to the sudden time skip (I've been watching way too much Doctor Who considering i wrote 'time' and then had a mini seizure -_-)_


End file.
